Michael Laus: 'I literally force myself to have one day off whenever I can afford to'
7 questions for conductor Michael Laus

Born in Malta and trained at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi of Milan, Michael Laus is the resident conductor of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, music director of the Malta Youth Orchestra, a concert pianist and associate professor in Music Studies at the University of Malta.
1.What’s been the most defining moment in your career so far?
I had several. I remember vividly the first time I conducted an orchestra and choir when I was 19, in Bergamo. Although it was not at all easy and straightforward, at that moment, I said to myself that this was what I wanted to do in life, and I have never regretted that decision. I have to say that orchestra conducting is a much harder job than most people imagine! Most of my ‘free’ time is spent pouring over scores, not to mention sleepless nights before, and sometimes after, performances. I also cherish some performances of works which I consider as landmarks in my career, such as Otello in Berne, and last December, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Mediterranean Conference Centre. This latter composition is a work that I have loved, studied and lived with most of my life, and, every time I have conducted it, it gives me new motivation and energy.
2. As a creative, how do you navigate the world and speed of social media?
Over the years, I have learned to live with it. Social media has certainly made life easier for public figures, in the sense that one can immediately publish their own news and market events daily. On the other hand, we are faced with a deluge of cultural events, and this also makes it difficult at times to distinguish between high quality events and others which are less so, unless one is familiar with the artists who are participating. From my side, I consider myself a moderate user of social platforms, as I rarely spend more than a few minutes daily, if at all. Most of the marketing for the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra concerts is done by our excellent marketing team, and I interact with them regularly. I love the fact that we can all publish and receive news instantly, as we can keep up with current affairs from all fields of life at any moment and without spending too much time. The internet is a much more economical way to receive news than television, as you can more easily select your own viewing time and content.
3.Do you consider artificial intelligence a threat to your career, or an opportunity?
Definitely an opportunity, although I must say I do not use it as much as I could. Obviously, AI cannot really assist in the studying of scores, orchestral rehearsals and the actual performances, which are the core areas of a conductor’s work, but it can be a great help in researching about particular styles, composers, and compositions. I use it to discover new works which might otherwise have escaped me, especially by contemporary composers, but only as a first contact with the information, so to speak. I have come across several mistakes on AI, so any information that I read needs to be subsequently ascertained from other, more reliable, sources. I note that several of my students have come to rely too heavily on AI, finding it a comfortable source of instant information, sometimes without bothering to confirm the material. This attitude can lead one to stop thinking for oneself and become mentally lazy.

4.How do you stay motivated and inspired, especially during tough times or when the work feels hard?
I literally force myself to have one day off whenever I can afford to. Taking a day off for me means literally not thinking, reading about or listening to music at all. This happens rarely, sometimes only after a three-month period of continuous work everyday, but after my day off I feel physically and mentally refreshed and ready to start all over again. Every summer I try to take at least one whole week off, during which I go on holiday with my family. When I am not working on music, I read and think about other things. I am passionate about science, and in particular astronomy, and I love learning the latest updates about our knowledge of the universe. We are living in exciting times and have to constantly revise what we thought were irrefutable truths about the cosmos, especially since the launch of the James Webb Telescope. I was lucky enough to see the man’s first step on the moon, and now I am looking forward to the day when man will land on Mars, which should be in the not-too-distant future.
5.How do you balance your creative instincts with the expectations of your audience or collaborators?
Very interesting question. I have had to learn to do this the hard way, through years of experience of trial and error, mainly because it is difficult to assess in advance what the expectations of the audience are. In most of my MPO programmes, I try to combine a piece or pieces which the audience will find familiar with something new for both audience and orchestra, although this is not always possible. Working on new pieces provides a challenge for the orchestra musicians and myself, and if the preparatory work has been done well, the audience will normally love it, even if the style or the composer are new to them. I am lucky in that the repertoire corresponds to my main area of study, which is the music of the Classical and Romantic periods, is also the most popular with audiences all over the world, but occasionally I like to create a challenge by going out of my comfort zone and tackle some contemporary pieces, for example. It is always interesting to see how audiences react to these pieces, sometimes in a completely unexpected manner!
6.How do you approach a new project? Do you have a specific process or routine you follow?
I do not have a specific process, and I certainly do not follow a fixed routine! It all depends on the time frame and the type of work I will be performing. If it is a new and challenging major work, I get the score at least one year in advance and have a first run-through at the piano, in order to get a first general idea. I also listen to some recordings at this stage, something which I stop doing when I get closer in time to my own performance. Then I leave the work dormant, so to speak, for a while. I go through it again after a few weeks, but these first study sessions happen in small doses. As the performance date gets closer, I work on it more and more frequently, until I feel that I ‘possess’ the work. It is difficult to describe what this means exactly, but it goes beyond merely being familiar with the work; it feels as if the work has become part of my system and I know every detail without having to make a great effort to remember. With works which I have conducted before, the process is less laborious and normally takes much less time, although I always re-study works which I have already performed, rather than just relying on the experience of previous performances. Apart from personal study, than there is the organisational and logistic side: together with the MPO team, we decide on the amount of rehearsals necessary and the orchestra personnel required.
7.Can you let us in on some of the future projects, works?
My next project, which I am very much looking forward to, is a concert performance of Carlo Diacono’s opera L’Alpino, composed in 1918 and not performed in its original version since 1946. This has required a great deal of preparation, because we had to work from the composer’s autograph manuscript and typeset and edit all the material, and also because it was new to most of the performers. The hard work is worth the effort, as it is a stunningly beautiful work and I cannot understand why it has been forgotten. I am very much looking forward to the performance on 31 January at the Manoel Theatre.
In March I will be conducting Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, again at the Manoel Theatre, and also the same composer’s Petite messe solennelle. On 5 April, I will be conducting Holst’s The Planets, always a favourite with audiences, at the Mediterranean Conference Centre. For this performance, the MPO will be joined by the Malta Youth Orchestra, of which I am music director. It always gives me great satisfaction and joy to work with the MYO and see these young people work with enthusiasm and improve at such a fast rate!
Extra round
What does music mean to you on a personal level? Is it a form of expression, therapy, or something else?
It is all of that, and much more! As far back as I can remember, music has been the backbone of my life. Although there is also the ‘difficult’ side to it, which consists mainly of daily long hours of hard work and trying to keep control of one’s nerves during performances, music almost never fails to bring me joy and satisfaction. These derive not only from the aesthetic merit of the works I perform, but also from the fact that the performances give so much joy to audiences. I consider myself lucky that I can do what I always wanted to do in life.